So, Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three entities. Let’s look at this a bit closer. In an indictment announced Friday in Washington, Mueller describes a years-long, multimillion-dollar conspiracy by hundreds of Russians aimed at criticizing Hillary Clinton and supporting Senator Bernie Sanders and Trump. More accurate, I suspect, would be to s […]

Apparently, this drone issue has become pretty serious among the remaining A-list bloggers of the left. You can get the full PUMA treatment for even suggesting that the use of drones should be discussed. I suspect that a no-drone stance will become the new black on the left, with good reason. At least it’s not dogmatic, although if they’re not careful, it could become a dogmatic issue. The problem is not that drones drop bombs on innocent people. It’s that people with unlimited, unaccountable power can drop bombs on people they do not like and, because it is not personally expensive to them, the power will be abused. You can count on it. Drones with lethal capacity should be banned. You can’t control power like that. You need to destroy it before it falls into the hands of the people who, meaning to do good, can ultimately not stop themselves from exercising it for their own purposes. In a sense, this is the same problem we’ve been dealing with since Magna Carta. One person has too much power and can use it indiscriminately to the point that no one is safe.

But while the no-droners are getting more than a little sympathy because they have incurred the unfair wrath of the party fanatics, they themselves still think it is unserious that the current president used vote suppression tactics to win the nomination in 2008. For some reason, that doesn’t seem to bother them, although when Republicans try to invalidate whole populations of voters in PA, lefties have a royal fit. Throwing a fit *is* the correct response, in case there were any doubts. But it’s no different than what the party did to its voters in 2008. Inconvenient votes were suppressed, transferred or halved so that one person would have an advantage over another. To me, it’s just as serious an issue as the drone problem. Maybe more so. If you can’t vote out the guy who uses drones, you’re pretty much screwed.

Oh, sure, it all happened four years ago and what does that have to do with today? Isn’t it obvious? The party locked itself in with Obama. I still don’t think the Democrats who are feeling betrayed right now understand what they’re dealing with. Obama used WALL STREET to get the nomination. You know, those guys who brought the entire planet to the edge of economic oblivion?? They don’t know limits. They’re like Enron on crack, PCP and bath salts with a chaser of testosterone. Wall Street culture has permeated the party. That’s why the partisans are so aggressive. It’s the way they operate. They’re smart, they’re driven and they don’t think very far ahead. They want to win, that much is clear. But to them, governing is not so important. What is important is staying in charge, looking out for their own interests and politically obliterating anyone that gets in their way.

So the party faithful decided not to primary Obama this year because that sounded crazy. Now, some Democrats regret that we didn’t primary him. I think that just having a concerted effort on the left to discuss it seriously would have been enough to get the DNC’s attention. But at the time it was suggested to push for the only viable alternative to Obama that would have had the Obama Democrats peeing their pants, those of us who could see this day coming were called crazy.

I dunno, maybe you have to be a little bit crazy to see outside the box. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Maybe the left should stop trying to control everything for fear of losing and do something a little crazy every now and then.

Well, whatever, the left will have plenty of time to think about going a bit mad in 2014. Let’s make the circular firing squad brief this time, shall we?

BTW, I heard that there’s a new NBC poll that put Obama ahead by a lousy 3 points.

Against Mitt Romney.

Obama should be coasting by now.

This ain’t over yet people and Obama’s no longer historic. He’s no longer a political cypher either. Now we know the limits of his audacity.

The Republicans are sitting on a wad of cash and they will use it in the last couple of weeks to blame Obama for everything that has happened in the last four years. He’ll get blamed for everything he did and all of the things he didn’t do. These are not ordinary times. Real people are hurting and they’re angry. They voted for a Democrat and they didn’t get one. Political junkies knew that the Republicans would be obstructive pains in the asses. That was their plan to return to power. But that’s no excuse for the poor performance of the past four years. If Obama had acted like a Democrat and used the power that the voters gave him the first two years and failed, he would have a much stronger case against the Republicans this year. But you have to at least try to do what voters expect you to do before they cut you any slack and all indications are that he did worse than nothing. He catered to the very people who got us into this mess.

Elections hinge on motivated voters. Do you feel motivated?

One piece of advice to the new defectors: don’t let the partisans guilt trip you. They’re going to say that it will be all your fault if Romney wins. That’s bullshit. It’s the party’s responsibility to nominate a candidate that represents your values and the platform of your party. You own your vote. If the party is playing a game of political chicken with you in order to make you feel like you’re trapped into voting for their guy, remember that their job was to court you, not to take you for granted. You have issues that are important to you and you shouldn’t always have to sit down and shut up while the candidate goes chasing after voters with whom you have little in common. You don’t owe him anything. If the polls get too close, he might start sweet talking you. And if that happens, make him work for your vote.

Yeah, it will suck if Romney and more Republicans win. I’m planning to vote D down ticket. But it will suck worse for the guys who highjacked the party because they will be out of power and power is more addicting than anything else. They’re going to hate that.

Good.

Welcome new Democrats In Exile. We’re out of our customary initiation packages. Grab some popcorn and make yourselves comfortable.

17 Responses

That poll is too close. It’s beginning to feel like Corzine-Christie where the Republican won by default when Corzine couldn’t rally enough troops. If Obama can’t get more than 3 points up after all the blunders and bullshit that the Romney-Ryan campaign has had over the last couple of weeks, then there’s an underlying resistance to him that might not be fixable in time for the election. He shot his bin Laden wad last year so that’s not going to work. And the unemployment rate stays stubbornly fixed. I could be wrong about this but I wouldn’t be ordering the Bollinger yet.

And George Soros’ comment that he is “used to fighting losing battles but doesn’t like to lose without fighting,” when it was still thought that Obama did lose a fight: he didn’t lose anything he wanted. He got exactly the health care bill he had promised his sponsors and he’s been getting what he wants since he took office. Hello, lights on, nobody home?

Why is this “not dogmatic”? Looks the very definition of dogmatic to me. Amygdala driven as all hell, to boot.

the best outcome IMO is if Obama lost and the democrats took back the congress and won a larger majority in the senate. Romney could be controlled and in 2016 the country would be ready for a democratic pres.

Exactly. I’m not sure why it’s so hard for people to see that if Obama wins, he’ll do what he’s been doing so well for the past four years to make people frustrated. Come 2016, there’ll be a landslide for anything with an R label.

Let’s take this out of politics for a second, just to make it clearer. Pretend I’m in Walmart, looking for a lawnmower. But something odd has happened since the last time I visited the store about twenty years ago. There’s nothing but shelves and shelves of fully recyclable turnip twaddlers and artisanal lego doghouses.

So, since I need a lawn mower, my only choice is to plunk $100 down on a twaddler. Otherwise I’m throwing my money away.

The odd thing is that Obama has absolutely destroyed the wing of the Democratic Party that he catered to, the Blue Dogs. After the 2008 election there were 54 of them and they dictated policy in the House. Obama said he was going to austerity in two years while he was selling his inadequate stimulus to the Blue Dogs. Obama never bothered to sell or meet much with regular Democrats. Well, now there are just 25 of them and it will probably end up with about 15 after this election.

If you give voters the choice between a real Republican and a fake one, they’ll pick the real Republican every time. And if you give them a choice between a real Democrat and a real Republican, voters will generally choose the real Democrat.Even if Democrats gain “just” ten or 15 seats, there will be a swing to 20 or 25 more real Democrats. The ones I actually vote for, not the ones where I vote Green in protest.

The media yaps about the center but we really have real Democrats and real Republicans and a few frauds trying to pretend they are real Democrats who sold out to Wall Street and the big corporations.

I don’t think the Republicans are all that desirous of the Presidency this cycle anyway. Why should they be, when they have a compliant Democrat who does what they want ? Maybe Sheldon Adelson or a another high roller kicks in a huge sum to buy an attack ad against O, but the attack won’t be sustained enough to have a lasting impact.

If the GOP wanted to win, there are any number of attack avenues they can pursue against Obama that are legitimate and WOULD stick. Like chronic high unemployment or the fact that no Wall Street executive has been investigated for accounting control fraud. The President campaigned against Wall Street excesses, but he has done nothing to rein them in.

Um, Gallup and an NBC news poll still puts the race at roughly 3-4%. That’s like the margin of error.
I think we are suffering from a perception problem. If you don’t watch the news and don’t use Facebook and only read your news from relatively propaganda free outlets, your perception of the world and the race in general looks very different from the average Fox News junky or over worked American who can only consume news in quick sound bites.
I don’t think the Republicans ever throw races. They set them up so they get what they want no matter who wins. That’s why they backed Obama in Feb-Mar of 2008. They needed to take out Clinton. With Obama, they got a twofer. A guy who would be beholden to the financiers and a completely clueless novice in the art of governing. They didn’t need McCain. But after November, Obama would be a lame duck president with nothing to lose if he ever decided to act like a democrat. Plus, the Republican demographic is dying out. This may be the last election they’ll have to undo the New Deal. I think they’re going to try to win this.
And then there are those poll numbers which are sticky. They never give Obama a clear lead. That suggests there is resistance to Obama in the electorate at large which he may find difficult to overcome. The economy sucks, people elected a Democrat so this wouldn’t happen and he completely screwed up. They’re pissed.
I’m seeing a replay of Corzine-Christie.

Maybe. But I keep thinking back to previous election cycles when the GOP went for the throat against AL Gore and John Kerry. Heck, the swift boat brigade was out in full force by now. Right now, Romney can’t get out of his own way.

Obama’s poll numbers are underwhelming. This underscores that people know he’s not done a good job, and based on performance, he doesn’t deserve another term. A sustained assault by the GOP could put his re-election in imminent jeapordy, but instead, he’s likely-not certain- to win a second term. I’m not seeing the savage GOP attacks that we’re accostomed to at this stage. It could still happen, and there are enough global flash points to undermine his candidacy, but I think the elites have enough confidence in Obama’s obsequiousness to feel confident in a second term. Mitt Romney is an insurance policy, a put option in case the voters turn away from O at the last minute.

You’re point is well-taken, and you could be right. I think we’re at greater risk of the New Deal unraveling in a second Obama term, than with Romney.

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